A pair of students leave their mark on Wofford College

Friday

May 17, 2013 at 8:59 PM

Lamar Hunter and Cameron Kimber are good friends, good students and better people.

By Drew Brooksdrew.brooks@shj.com

Lamar Hunter and Cameron Kimber are good friends, good students and better people.The pair will graduate from Wofford College on Sunday, having left indelible marks on the school, officials said.Both 22-year-olds are "do-gooders," according to the school. And the list of service organizations they are members of appear to leave them little to no free time."I don't like being bored," Hunter said. "I hate being bored, so I always make sure I'm doing something.""And I don't like sitting around either," Kimber added.The pair helped start SCATE, or Sharing Creative Art Through Expression, a student organization that promotes poetry, dancing and music as forms of expression. They are also members of the Association of Multicultural Students and Souljahs for Christ, a student-led Bible study group.Kimber, a double major in accounting and finance from Powder Springs, Ga., volunteered to prepare taxes for low-income families in Spartanburg this year. He also served in the peer mentoring program Transitions and participated in the Rotaract, the student Rotary Club organization. He also found the time to be a research associate and portfolio manager for the student-run James Investment Fund and was a team captain for Wofford in the 2012 Corporate Financial Analyst Challenge at the University of Georgia.Hunter, a chemistry major from North Charleston, has served in leadership posts for the Minority Association of Pre-Medical Students and has been active in the Wofford Ambassadors and Math Academy programs. He also helped start Investing in Our Future, a mentoring program that targets Spartanburg high school students and encourages them to pursue their dreams, whether or not that includes college."I really value mentoring," said Hunter, who credits a similar program at his high school for his development. "You really have to figure out where you want to go, then you can get there." Their efforts did not go unnoticed. At Wofford's Honor's Convocation late last month, Hunter and Kimber were regular guests on the stage.Hunter received the Outstanding Citizen Award and the Henry Freeman Service Award. Kimber received the Outstanding Citizen Award, the Department of Finance award and the Harold W. Green Award from the Department of Accounting.The Outstanding Citizen Award, Wofford officials said, goes to "the senior who has shown the greatest concern for, and given the greatest service to, the general improvement" of the college.Hunter and Kimber both said they fell in love with Wofford during campus visits while in high school. The pair met as freshmen, when both lived on the same floor of Walter K. Greene Residence Hall."We were the responsible ones," Kimber said with a laugh.The pair and a third friend, junior Tyrell Jemison, have become inseparable on campus — known as TLC by fellow students or the Three Musketeers by some Wofford officials."Both are remarkably bright students," said outgoing Wofford President Benjamin B. Dunlap, who taught the pair during the Presidential Seminar, a selective program that includes only one student from each academic department.Both also took advantage of travel opportunities while at Wofford, with Hunter traveling to Chile and South Africa, while Kimber journeyed to Germany, Turkey, Bosnia and Hawaii.Kimber and Hunter hope to keep in touch.Kimber will start work this fall as an auditor for Price Waterhouse Cooper in Charlotte, N.C. Hunter will attend the University of South Carolina School of Medicine-Greenville.Both men are also among the first in their families to graduate from college. Kimber will be the first male in his family to graduate — his mother earned a degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Hunter is a first-generation student; however, his father did earn a degree online.To celebrate, Kimber said most of his immediate family will be in town for Sunday's graduation. Hunter's cheering section will be a little larger. He said about 50 family members would be attending.Both said the graduation means a lot to their families.Kimber said his mom always pushed him to succeed academically, holding him and his sister to a strict regime of homework, which had to be checked and corrected before they could go outside and play."There was no playing until we were done," he said. "I hated it then. But I appreciate it now. You did good, Mom."

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